


out of the blue (i'll be new)

by kimaracretak



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Gen, lonely girl makes a deal with a murdergoddess: the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 21:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12591204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: Velora lies dead in Thar Amphala for an hour, and this time, there is no one to stop Vesh from claiming a champion of her own.





	out of the blue (i'll be new)

**Author's Note:**

> for the anon on tumblr who asked me
>
>> I know "you don't feel EVIL, do you" was just a tactless Kash joke but listen: Vesh has touched both Velora and Vex now, and the Raven Queen wasn't there to restrain her in the ashes of Thar Amphala as she was in the sunken tomb. What sweeter prize than the sister of two Champions?
> 
> and probably did not expect fic but oh well

Velora knows what it feels like, to be in-between. She knows all the places in Syngorn where the air feels a little bit funny and Father won't explain it, has stood there when her home _shifts_ around her, moves across sky and stars in the blink of an eye. Those are the best moments, the ones where she is _everything_ and nothing can touch her or scold her.

But this isn't in-between, even though some part of her thinks it should be. It isn’t the Feywild, with its beautiful colours and strange creatures, or even Exandria with its rules and equally strange humans.

Here there is only blue, and the wind crying like a storm, and Velora looks at her singed clothes and burnt hands and thinks that maybe she's —

That she might be —

She clenches her hands into trembling fists at her sides where she can't see the angry red welts, willing herself not to be afraid. _Vex wouldn't be afraid. Vax wouldn't be afraid._

But maybe they would have been afraid, when they were smaller like her?

_Big girls don't cry,_ she thinks fiercely, but if she stares at the owlbear feathers in her braid until her eyes water, it's not really crying, is it? If she throws her head back and screams her brother's and sister's names to the sky because the wind shouldn't be lonely, it's not the same, is it?

Time unspools around Velora in this nowhere place, and when her eyes finally focus again, she is no longer alone.

The woman before her is hardly a woman at all, just the vague outline of a face behind a fall of blue hair and tattered blue and silver robes. "Oh, child," she says, and her voice is the same as the wind's.

"I know I'm dead," Velora says crossly, because she is perfectly capable of screaming and thinking at the same time. "But I'm not a _baby._ " Her voice is hoarse from screaming, as if the wind has scrubbed her raw.

Despite the brave words she wants to step as far away from the woman as she can. But she's not sure she _can_ move, in the mists, and she remembers from the Feywild that sometimes it is best to stay very very still until you are sure what is wanted from you before you run.

The woman laughs, and now she is not the sorrowful wind but the joyous, furious river that borders Syngorn every time it comes back to Exandria, the one Velora always thought she might befriend, if she grew up like Vex. "True. But you have yet to earn any other title, Velora."

Velora frowns, chews her lip as she thinks about all the stories she knows about Death. "What —" her voice cracks, and she frowns _Unbecoming for a lady of Syngorn._ "What's your name? You must be courteous if you know mine."

For a long moment there is silence, so long Velora fears she might be left alone. And then the woman does not speak, but every strand of the wind says: _Vesh._

Velora nods sagely, as if she knows exactly what that means.

"Now that formalities are done," Vesh says, "I have something to offer you. I cannot take you yet, it will upset too many people even if they cannot stop me now. But if you return to your family, there is something you must do for me."

_Return._ The enormity of the word staggers her for a moment, almost too good to be true, like when Father promises her a day off lessons if she'll only do something impossible.

And then she realises what else Vesh is saying. She wants to make a _deal_ , like the ones Velora will one day make for Syngorn. She folds her arms, lifts her chin. "Tell me. But if I do, I want an owlbear. A _real_ one."

"Well." Vesh smiles. "That can certainly be arranged." She leans down, and in the moment before her forehead presses against Velora's, Velora can see that while one of her eyes is as blue as her hair, the other is a deep shining gold.

 

***

 

Velora opens her eyes to find another blue-and-yellow mismatched set staring down at her, and for a moment she is afraid she wasn't careful enough in her deal, that Vesh tricked her.

And then that face is pushed aside, and there's only her family, sweeping her up in their arms. Velora closes her eyes and lets their frantic concern wash over her like raven's wings.

Velora has seen birds try to fly through storms before, and she's seen their broken bodies the next day, exploring the city gardens where Father's told her not to go. It's what happens, she knows now, when they don't have a guide.

"Wanna go home," she whispers, pressing her face into Vex's shoulder and reaching for Vax's hand. He's cold, cold like Vesh was, and she thinks maybe that's important.

Vex's hands are gentle as they stroke through her hair, smoothing out the crumpled feathers. "I know, darling, I know. We'll get you home, I promise."

Velora smiles, breathes in the scent of ash and sweat and death that clings to her sister. Vex and Vax love her very much, like she loves both of them.

And they will follow her home, to a place where they won’t have to be ravens any longer.


End file.
